discernment

Confidentiality: If you have to ask, get quiet and listen deeply

December 10, 2019December 10, 2019No Comment

Those who need to ask if they can share the practices with others (simulations, not supports to practice) are invited to get quiet and listen deeply in order to more fully grasp the reason for doing this work.

The objective of the CSE is to facilitate everyone’s ability to be in constant conscious contact with: 1) the frequency of self-as-consciousness, and, 2) guides/instructors who occupy that frequency. We aim to build the capacity to expand perspective, heighten self-awareness, and skillfully tap into our internal guidance system at will to receive our own version of transformative processes for ourselves in service to the collective.

Community Self-selection & Glass Brimming over (GBS) Syndrome

March 9, 2018March 9, 2018No Comment

Quaker Pathways Forward and Inner landscapes communities of practice participants have self-selected and sought out the practices. Enthusiastic practitioners are drawn to, or feel passionately compelled to dive into self-transformation …

Self-Observing: Daily Life AS Meditation

December 2, 2017December 2, 2017No Comment

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Renee Descartes’ declaration in 1637, “I think, therefore I am,” powerfully aligned Western thought with the form-identified “avatar* ego” for the centuries that would follow. Yet we are fundamentally NOT the ego which is an amalgam of meticulously maintained, habitual thoughts ruled by fear. We are the awareness — the vast consciousness which is one with the larger field of universal intelligence behind the avatar-ego.

We think approximately 70,000 thoughts per day. We can choose to let these thoughts ride roughshod over us and align us with the limited ego. Or we can come to understand our minds and consciously, intentionally train it to serve our own growth and the evolution of our society.

Most people don’t understand the purpose of the human mind as a tool. Like Descartes we deify the mind with its limited reality-frame, and indulge its incessant fear-driven discursive thought. We thereby inadvertently cause ourselves and others a great deal of unnecessary suffering.

Neuroscience Context for Practice I.

November 14, 2017November 14, 2017No Comment

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Mastery of our minds is essential to living in alignment with our highest, selves, i.e. with Love. Such mastery involves working intentionally, creatively, and consistently with our brains.

We can train our minds to change the physical structure and the function(s) of the brain. If we continually pay attention to, and purposefully direct our thought processes we can gain tremendous self-knowledge. Until we begin to consistently work with the dynamics of our longstanding habits, belief systems, points of reference, and patterns, these processes run us. The brain defaults to what is familiar, not necessarily to what is healthy and growth producing.

We can shape, reshape, and mold our malleable brains like modeling clay to deliberately foster optimal growth and transformation. The terrain of the brain stands at the ready. We just need to pick up the tools and work methodically.

Supports to Practice: Quaker Resources on Mysticism, Contemplation, and Quaker Revitalization

September 30, 2017September 30, 2017No Comment

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There is a plethora of excellent Quaker and resonant material in use around mysticism, quantum science, contemplation, and the revitalization of Quakerism. There are as many pathways toward the goal of “being love” in service to the planet as there are Quaker Friends.

Therefore members of the Quaker Pathways Forward – Rekindling the Fire of Fox community-of-practice are enthusiastically encouraged to avail themselves of the publications, programs, curriculum, retreats, training, and study guides which enhance spiritual deepening. These are “supports to our practice” – tools that help to purposefully focus intent.

Some seminal offerings are listed herein.

The Fire of Fox in You

September 11, 2017September 11, 2017No Comment

By Marisol Cortez
Cross-posted from Deceleration
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We had gotten wind of this talk at a meeting on climate organizing in San Antonio, where we had picked up a flyer describing Boyce Simms as “an engaged Eco-Buddhist” who “works to transform anger and despair into compassion toward neighbors, communities, and the environment.” Given Deceleration‘s concern not just with questions of climate justice but with the affective (or inner/emotional) work required to sustain effective action in the face of mounting climate and social crises, we were intrigued.

Quaker Pathways Forward Ministry

March 16, 2017March 16, 2017No Comment

By Pamela Boyce Simms
Quaker Pathways Forward
Seminal, Henry Cadbury
FELLOWSHIP PAPER
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Friends it’s time to shed the vestiges of outworn caterpillar thinking. Our planet faces an existential crisis. Climate change, resource depletion, and income disparity are now hastened by an unhinged political landscape, and we are racing toward the edge of a cliff!
Throughout history Quakers have repeatedly held and activated the equivalent of transformational “imaginal cells” which have triggered metamorphoses in American social norms and behavior.